I made up a jig to set the 5/8" front-to-rear spar washout measurement. I taped a 5/8" strip to a straight edge stretching between the spars near the wingtip secured via rubber bands; then put a small level at the center. I was then able to use my adjustable shop stands to tweek the position of the rear spar downwards until the bubble was centered. I could then adjust the lift strut rod-ends to secure the position.
I'm still tweeking the strut lengths . Each time I believe I have the dihedral at 2.51" at the tip, when I remove the shop stands and let the wing settle on the strut legs, the tip seems to droop about 3/4". Still making adjustments in small increments. I hope to have this set by the weekend (it's Saturday near noon now). I can then set/tighten the rod-ends stop nuts and remove the strut leg assembly to epoxy/rivet the inserts in place. I can also remove the fwd and aft strut spar mounts, clean and prime the spars before re-mounting in place with epoxy and rivets. Final step will be to 5/16" drill thru mounting bosses at the spar roots for the mounting pin (fwd) and bolt (aft).
The final operation (probably complete early next week) is to cleanup the jury strut ends (and the one new long jury strut), prime , paint, and re-install. With all that done I can finally fold the port wing !
Posted the wrong picture ... the 5/8" block is positioned under the leveling strip on top of the rear spar at the root.
Note: The sheet of white poster-board in the top picture is my "target" for the laser tape for measuring for zero degrees of sweep. I place the laser device on the fwd spar at the root and mark the position on the poster-board. I then place the laser along the fwd spar at the wing tip and adjust the wing such that the two laser points overlap.
I also use the laser tape to check the dihedral shooting from the fwd spar to the floor at the root and adjust shooting from the fwd spar at the tip looking for the 2.51" 'increase. The laser tape was a good investment.
I'll be reviewing this and asking many questions once I get into my build. I'm unfortunately unfamiliar with much of what you're doing here. Since I've never built an airplane, kit or otherwise, these adjustments are difficult for me to comprehend. I'm also a visual learner so the pictures are greatly appreciated. I think I need to be in the process of building to get the full understanding of what you're doing. Please continue to post. This information I have a strong feeling will be of great value to not just me, but many other builders in the future. I see your posts as being a major extension of the manual.
It took Chris almost a year to complete assembling my kit. He allowed me an on-line look at an early version of the manual. I did a lot of proof-reading and some non-functional editing. I too had a lot of questions that could rather easily be nullified by seeing the parts. Once the kit arrived I was probably a little too cocky about getting on with the build. Chris had done a fair amount of re-design that I found not to be covered (to my satisfaction) in the manual. Also, as you might note from my Build Log entries, we found a few parts that were included that did not work together (re-design issues) which Chris, for the most part, quickly replaced. We also had some rather wild issues with Polini concerning their miss-represented mount rings and miss-manufactured prop nut.
I thought I was being rather proactive when very early on I collected many of the components and sent them off to the local powder coating shop. I retrospect, I should have waited until the parts had been at least trial fitted and modified.
New design areas not obvious in the 2022 version of the manual:
(1) Tail Wheel mount and spring assembly ... new spring is a solid ROUND aluminum rod with associated new wheel mount (very nice)
(2) Flaperon control arms redesigned to have the tube end of the assembly slide INTO the flaperon spar. My original parts fit OVER the spar which did not allow quite enough space for the AN3 mounting bolt.
(3) The upper jury strut mounts (attach to the underside of the fwd and rear spars). The manual shows the mount's tab PARALLEL to the length of the spar. The new design (better) has the tabs parallel with the fuselage. This effects the direction of the crimped ends of the jury strut legs. Once again, I got ahead of myself and had already crimped them before I sent them off to be powder coated. I believe I've solved the problem by using additional AN42B-5 eye bolts.
(4) The manual's assembly instructions for the list struts did NOT mention the need to trim the strut legs (until LATER in the manual). Foolishly, I riveted the mounting inserts into BOTH ends of the strut legs (once again for the power coater). Luckily they were too long and I could cut the legs down to proper lengths BUT this required me to order 4 new upper inserts. Chris has them manufactured a some local facility. After a 5 week wait, I received the new inserts and they were of a totally new design, which I actually thought would be an improvement as the head of the new design looked to provide more clearance at the spar mount. HOWEVER, these turned out to be miss-manufactured as they were all drilled and tapped for 5/16" COARSE thread and the rod end bearings are all 5/16" FINE thread. Chris immediately got to his supplier about replacements for my replacements. HOWEVER, it has been ANOTHER 5 weeks and I'm still waiting. (I have since disassembled the originals and re-worked them into my port strut legs .... seems to be working well.) Moral ... read the manual carefully and don't try to get too far ahead.
(5) if you're using the Polini, you'll want to re-locate the radiator from above to below the engine. I designed a mounting system that just uses 3 lengths of 1/8" x 3/4" aluminum strips that bolt to the lower end of the firewall. (I can provide a diagram and pictures of the installation should anyone decide to go that route.) The Polini Parts website gives a fair description of the additional parts required to do the relocation (in terms of plumbing).
I've been rambling on ... the build project is really not that difficult. Very doable. I don't go out every day to "build an airplane", I go out to measure and trim a spar end or to position a jury strut leg; just a task or two. I now keep a To-Do List of small tasks and try to get at least one or two done every day .... even if it is just remove the clamps from an assembly I epoxied the day before.
Thanks for the approval of my Build Log entries and I'll try to keep it up ... off now to, for the umph-teenth time, verify the sweep, dihedral, and washout of the port wing so I can (shudder) dis-assemble all the parts to clean, paint, epoxy, cleco, and rivet all the parts back together (hopefully withing the next couple of days),
Kurt, like you, I tried to be as proactive as possible with my build, but figured out early on it was best to trial fit everything a few times first. This, of course, came after a multitude of mistakes on my part. Thankfully Chris was there to bail me out where needed. haha The funny thing is, often it was simply a case of me not paying enough attention - which led me to realize that doing TOO much in a day can be a bad thing, and ended up slowing me down.
Just one good example of this was with my jury struts...I ended crimping one end in the wrong direction, at 90 degrees to the mount. I ended up waiting for a new section of tube from Chris, and was "back in action", as they say.
You also have the perfect mentality when building, and summed it up nicely with "I don't go out every day to "build an airplane", I go out to measure and trim a spar end or to position a jury strut leg". I had to realign my thinking to this after some time. Every small task should be its own project, rather than having you "rushing" to build an airplane.
It also helps maintain your motivation if you head to the garage or hangar and handle just one small task per day, as long as it makes you feel like you're moving forward. This has been what keeps me going.
As for the "rambling", please keep at it. I enjoy the reading material, and too much information is actually desired by me (and probably others as well), versus not enough!
Thank you both. Great information and help. I'll see if I can get a copy of the manual from Chris. I have one that was sent to me by another Badland Pilot, but it's very old. I'm sure it's out of date. I need to practice the same project process you've both outlined as the right way to do the build, piece by piece mini-projects, and trying to do something, even something small every day.
